INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE

Year B - Fourth Sunday After Epiphany

DEUTERONOMY 18:15-20.  The Book of Deuteronomy is skillfully designed as a series of sermons Moses supposedly delivered to the Israelites as they prepared to enter the promised land of Canaan. How they may reliably know God's will and thus be equipped to face an uncertain future is the question considered int his passage.  They are promised a prophet whom God will inspire.  The people will hear the prophet's words as the voice of God. There is still no clearer definition of a prophet.

PSALM 111.  This is one of several psalms of a particular type known as "wisdom psalms." In the original, it was an acrostic with each of its twenty-two lines began with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This created a restrictive artificiality not evident in English. Our version is a pleasing celebration of God's faithfulness and goodness.

1 CORINTHIANS 8:1-13.  The Corinthian church was a mix of both Jews and Gentiles. They faced a serious problem about food which had been sacrificed to idols, then sold in the marketplace. Some felt it could be consumed without harm to their faith or morals. Others felt that to do so would defile them. Paul tried to mediate the divisions this caused in the fledgling congregation.  He seemed to suggest that they are starving to death spiritually while arguing about the menu for the church supper! Instead the Corinthians needed the central encompassing truth of Christ's redemptive death which makes us all members of God's family who therefore love and respect one another.

MARK 1:21-28.  It was the custom to invite a visiting rabbi to speak in a local synagogue such as the one in Capernaum. Jesus' authority both demonstrated and challenged his audience when he taught and healed on the sabbath. By his teaching and his healing Jesus revealed that the reign of God's redeeming love had already begun. He also knew that some would believe and some would not. That does not seem to have changed, does it?

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS.

DEUTERONOMY 18:15-20.   The Book of Deuteronomy was skillfully designed as a series of sermons Moses supposedly delivered to the Israelites as they prepared to enter the promised land of Canaan.  To keep the covenant of Sinai (Horeb), they needed to know Yahweh's will and thus be equipped to face an uncertain future.  They were promised a prophet whom Yahweh would inspire.  The people would hear the prophet's words as the voice of Yahweh. We still do not have a clearer definition of a prophet.

2 Kings 22:8-20 tells of the discovery of a book was during repairs to the temple in the reign of King Josiah (circa 622 BCE). This book is usually identified as one of the main components of the book of Deuteronomy. Scholars tend to agree that at least some of Deuteronomy had been written in the middle half of the 7th century, prior to this discovery and several centuries after the time of Moses. Some parts of it also came from a slightly later date.

The great age of prophecy extended from the 8th to the 6th centuries BCE. During this period and against all odds, the worship of Yahweh and obedience to the sacred covenant of Sinai flowered into moral monotheism. The book of Deuteronomy represents the full flower of this monotheistic faith after Israel’s return  from exile in 539 BCE.

This passage claims that prophecy can be traced back to Moses at Horeb (also known as Mount Sinai). It is more probable that it represents a view of prophecy which Israel had experienced over the previous two to three hundred years. It came at a crucial time, however. Assyrian imperialism had been the dominant factor in the political life of the nation. The end of the Northern Kingdom had occurred circa 722 BCE. The Southern Kingdom of Judah alone remained of the once great kingdom of David, although greatly weakened and reduced to a feudal servant of Assyria. This had been a spiritual disaster for the chosen people of Yahweh. Idolatrous worship of foreign gods, especially the adoption of certain Canaanite practices, had been part of this spiritually dark age. (Cf. 18:9-14)

Assyria's power had now begun to wane.  Smaller nations like, Judah among them, plotted against their overlord and gradually freed themselves of Assyrian domination. Along with their new freedom, the people of Judah experienced a religious revival attributed to the leadership of their King Josiah.  The promise of a prophet like Moses who would speak for Yahweh and the rediscovery of the covenant law symbolized this return to the worship of Yahweh and a stricter obedience to the law as defined in the larger context in which this passage appears.

Do we not live in similarly chaotic times when political and economic change seriously affects our spiritual discernment? Will there be prophetic voices who speak for God in these times? Has the God of justice, righteousness, mercy and love fallen silent? Is no one listening? Can anyone hear amid the blaring cacophany of multiple media? In a global culture with instant digitalized communications available, what is the word of hope, justice and love that our scriptures proclaim? Where is the prophetic voice speaking for God today as Moses spoke to the Israelites on the threshold of the Promised Land? Ten days into a new American political era, countless millions the world over may well be looking to President Barack Obama as one such person.

PSALM 111.  This is one of several psalms of a particular type known as "wisdom psalms." The concluding formula in vs. 10 expresses the fundamental concept of Hebrew wisdom: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding." From all that goes before this formula, we realize that "fear" must be seen as "reverence" as opposed to the terror that comes from the expectation of danger.  "Awe" or "respectful dread" might be even better ways to describe it.

In the original Hebrew, the psalm is an acrostic with each of its twenty-two lines beginning with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This may have created a restrictive artificiality not evident in English, but which to the redactor of the Psalter recognized as a valuable poetic device. Our version is a pleasing celebration of God's faithfulness and goodness. The faithful become aware of these divine qualities by observation of "the works of the Lord". What Yahweh has done for Israel expresses the kind of God Yahweh really is: righteous, gracious, merciful, powerful, faithful, just, trustworthy, covenanting, redeeming. It is as if there are insufficient ways for the psalmist to celebrate Yahweh's holiness. Such an awesome deity can only be praised.

Could it be that our worship today lacks the enthusiasm such a vision of God conveys? Do we even believe that such a God exists? While transcendent beyond the storm and stress of human life, our God is eternally at work implementing in the historical events of our time God's majestic purpose made fully known in Jesus Christ.

1 CORINTHIANS 8:1-13.  Like all Christian congregation in the middle of the lst century CE, the Corinthian church was a mix of both Jews and Gentiles. But probably most of them were Gentiles quite used to living in ways foreign to most Jews. Gentiles or Jews, they faced a serious problem about food that had been sacrificed to idols, then sold in the marketplace. Some felt it could be consumed without harm to their faith or morals. Others, particularly strict Jews, felt that to do so would defile them.

Apparently this had become a seriously divisive issue in the Christian community. Someone would seem to have exercised authority in the matter, claiming special knowledge but without much compassion (vss. 2-3). The situation may have been exacerbated by Jews who insisted on the application of their dietary code to Gentiles as well. For some Jews, the code itself may have become an idol.

Paul dealt with the matter first with certain theological definitions. Idols do not really exist because there is only one God (vs. 4). Despite the evidence of a many of gods and idols, especially common in Corinth one would suspect, there is really only "one God, the Father." He further defines the Christian tradition of God as creator of all and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. All things owe their existence to this one God.

With genuine pastoral concern, Paul next spoke of the special sensibilities of the unlearned. There would have been some Corinthians who had come to their new faith with very little religious experience other than the predominant idol-worship of that city. These folk would necessarily be puzzled by the new situation. To eat food they knew to have been sacrificed to idols would be implicitly wrong. Hence "their conscience, being weak, is defiled." (vs. 7)

So Paul laid down a very simple rule to be followed: "Food does not bring us closer to God." (vs. 8) Neither eating or refraining from eating has any spiritual value. The important issue was how one's own practice affected one's neighbors. What some felt was no more than the exercise of their freedom, might well "become a stumbling block to the weak." (vs. 9). He drove the point home by advocating a more compassionate approach, especially for those who felt that such things really didn't matter. Not to do so would be a sin against Christ. (vs. 12) Paul himself was prepared never to eat meat of any kind so that he might do not harm to anyone else. (vs.13)

Do we still confront food issues? Does anyone remember the grape and lettuce boycotts in support of the farm workers of California? Genetically altered foods have become a controversy in Europe, if not in North America where they are far more prevalent.  Today, environmentally friendly foods have become a popular staple in most supermarkets. Is there a moral issue involved? Do the political and economic issues of low prices and subsidies for farm products have a moral component with which Christians need to consider?  Paul's answer to these questions surely applies: if someone is being hurt, we have to become involved for no other reason than that as Christians we are bound to be compassionate toward our neighbors.

MARK 1:21-28.  It was the custom to invite a visiting rabbi to teach in a local synagogue such as the one in Capernaum. Mark does not tell us what scripture passage Jesus explained in his message. He only gives us the reaction of two sets of people - the many who were astonished at his authority and the one whom he obviously frightened, though perhaps more by the man than his message.

The scribes were men who spent their time discerning the intricacies of Jewish law and custom from both the written texts and the oral tradition which had passed from teacher to pupil for generations. They were jealous of their special role in the Jewish synagogues. One scribe or rabbi, however, might not agree with another. Arguments inevitably ensued as to whose interpretation of scripture had greater validity. This only confused people. Jesus' approach was different. He had an authenticity about his teaching that expressed genuine authority.

The Greek word Mark used was exousia, which meant authority delegated by another, and in this instance, God. It was the same force with which the prophets had spoken. This word differed significantly from another dunamis, which meant strength or physical power and is the root for our English word dynamite. In the NT it was frequently used in reference to the performing of miracles.

The man afflicted "with an unclean spirit" created a scene by crying out, obviously in fear, "Have you come to destroy us?" Yet with his frightened question, he spoke the truth about Jesus. For whatever reason, the mentally ill frequently fear being confronted with the possible implications of their cure. If Jesus was indeed the Holy One of God, i.e. the Messiah, this sick man could be healed. Perhaps he had become accustomed to being the sick man of the village and benefiting from the compassion people showed him.

In the Quebec village where I grew up, such a lad lived right next to our schoolyard and daily enjoyed the friendship extended to him as the enthusiastic spectator of our games. A few years later he was indeed destroyed by other children who taunted him to the point of violence so that he had to be incarcerated in an asylum for the rest of his life.

Jesus' exorcisms and healing miracles were the evidence on which Mark built his case that Jesus was no one other than the Messiah. The miracles expressed both the power of Jesus’ personal holiness and his divinely delegated authority. The witnesses to this first of several miracles were simply astonished and began to ask questions about him. The news about him quickly spread through Galilee.

In his book, Mary Magdalene: A Biography, (Doubleday, 2005) Bruce Chilton asserts that the oral tradition behind the gospel narratives of exorcism can be traced to Mary Magdalene from whom Jesus had exorcised seven demons (Luke 8:2).

Read in order, (Mark’s) three stories amount to a manual on how to cope with unclean spirits (Mark 1:21-28; 5:1-17; 9:14-29): by identifying them, confronting them with the divine Spirit, and proclaiming their defeat.... (This first story) depicts the unclean spirits whose threats dissolve once they are confronted with purity. (Chilton, 35-36)

New Testament authors used several Greek terms to describe miracles. In English translation these variously became "signs, wonders, powers, works." Yet none convey the supernatural aspect that "miracles" does. A miracle does not occur as a supernatural event of its own accord or by virtue of the person who does it, whether Jesus himself or one of the apostles. It is the outward manifestation of divine presence, purity and power in specific situations. Mark expected his audience to know the answer to the question the people in the synagogue at Capernaum asked, "What is this?" They were not only asking what happened, but what did it mean? To Mark's audience this was the presence of the God of love and mercy active among these people inauguration God's rule in this place at this time.

Do miracles still happen? Has God died? Or is it our faith in divine power that has waned to the point of disbelief? Do we still trust in God who is with us and working in our human situations with love and compassion for the sick, the oppressed, the helpless and the faithless?

The biblical meaning of miracles is that God discloses and fulfills God's purpose in the world, especially on behalf of God's people and for the redemption of those who respond in faith to God's activity. By his teaching and his healing Jesus revealed that the reign of God's redeeming love had already begun. Spiritual discernment interprets apparently extraordinary events as the working of God’s power in human affairs. This may not be so much divine intervention as it is the enabling of processes which can ordinarily be seen as outside the boundaries normal human experience. Equally true was the conclusion Jesus would have drawn that some would believe and some would not. That does not seem to have changed, does it?

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